Insomniac Weekend Update: Walking Slowly and Taking Breaks

I have had trouble sleeping this past week, and tonight is no exception. Since my body doesn’t seem to want to sleep, I am taking a break from sleeping to check in.

I’m feeling better than I did last week, but I still have some anxiety going on. Sometimes when I wake up in the middle of the night I process feelings and have trouble going back to sleep.

Despite difficult feelings, I’ve had a pretty easy time sticking with my habit goals. I love the fall weather, which is making it easy and enjoyable for me to get walking in. I’ve taken 2 trail walks with kiddo this week, and today I walked to the grocery store with kiddo (30+ pounds) on my back, and then pushed the stroller full of groceries and kiddo home (probably 70-90 lbs total).

One of the side effects of choosing weightlifting as a primary form of physical activity is that my legs are always toast, since I do heavy squats 3 times per week plus lots of olympic lifts. I had gone to barbell club earlier in the day, which meant today was no exception. So, I take hills slowly. The walk home was mostly uphill, since I opted for the quiet route home, which is a slow, gradual incline. The alternative would be walking home on a flat, busy street, and then up a steep hill on the way home. I decided I would enjoy the quiet route more, but instead of pressuring myself on speed, I took it slowly, and took breaks whenever I felt like it.

In fact, I’ve been doing that a lot with my walking lately, even when not pushing a heavy load home. Sometimes after dropping kiddo off at the babysitter in the morning, I take the long way home. It adds a few blocks, but the hills aren’t as step. If my legs are feeling particularly tired, I take short breaks as needed. Any source that says “don’t stop when you’re tired; stop when you’re done” can go take a hike. I’m in this for the long road, so I’m determined to enjoy it, not hate it.

After I got home from getting the groceries, I was pretty tired. I went to bed soon after kiddo did. And now I’m back awake.

Other habits have been going well too. Hoping to sleep through the night again soon.